Appiphilia: Quicken Online puts its money on iPhone App

Money management apps aren't new to the iPhone. But there's a big dog checking out the yard -- and this dog isn't new to the world of personal finance: Quicken. (Intuit makes Quicken, Turbo Tax and QuickBooks.)

We took the iPhone app for a test drive.

Quicken Online Mobile (Free)

What it is: A money manager on the go.

What sizzles: If you're anything like me, you're better at spending money than keeping track of what you've got. This app's very first screen once you log in tells you what's left -- really left, as in, once bills are paid -- until your next payday.

The setup is fairly easy. On the Quicken Online site, once you have an account, you type in the name of your bank and log in, and it pulls in 90 days of your activity and assesses and categorizes the information. You can set goals on the site. Mint.com (and its iPhone app) also does sorting, categorizing and assessing.

But then, from the outlook page, like the one at right, you can turn the phone to the horizontal landscape mode to get a graph of your financial landscape -- upcoming bills show up as red dots that show the date, payee and amount when you touch them. The lavender across the bottom is the money you have left, and a purple bar should indicate your next paycheck. (My next paycheck isn't showing up in this screen grab, which I hope is not an indication of whether one is coming.) 

Under "activity," it lists all of your specific transactions and categorizes them. If you want to label transactions that are uncategorized or adjust the ones that are, you can do that manually.

One really cool feature that also uses iPhone strengths, whether 2G or 3G, is the ATM finder. Using GPS and what it knows about your banking preferences, it locates the nearest banks with green dots on the ones that won't cost you additional fees to use. (Or instead of using GPS, you can type in a ZIP code.) Directions are available from the Google map. 

Among the minor features: Auto log-in and password protection. If someone managed to get into the app, the worst they could probably do is rearrange your categories. No account numbers are included, and money can't be transacted.

What fizzles: Of course, the data reside on Quicken servers. Some folks aren't wild about giving over their personal banking details no matter how secure servers are.

In later incarnations, it'd be great to see the ability to use the iPhone camera to snap photos of relevant items, say, receipts you might need later for tax purposes, or items you buy to associate with the transaction.

Bottom line: Quicken offers a seamless, user-friendly app to track your money and to stay on track.

Although Quicken is looking toward providing applications for other smartphones, the company said it found the iPhone to be a more straightforward platform to focus on for now. Its mobile site is available to all Web-accessing mobile platforms. 

Have you tried it out? Share your thoughts on this app or other money management apps you like in the comments below.

-- Michelle Maltais

Subscribe to the Appiphilia RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.

Around the Web 4.30.09: Disney joins Hulu, TWX spins off AOL, camera shutter is world's fastest

At 15 cents per megabyte, you may pay more to proofread your own book on a Kindle than you'd spend on a new one. Credit: richardmasoner via Flickr

-- Disney has agreed to join Hulu. Company Town

-- Look for it in May: a search engine that directly answers questions "on-the-fly," instead of spitting out a list of Web pages. BBC

-- Apple is aggressively hiring a team to begin developing computer chips in-house again. WSJ

-- The Kindle can view your own personal documents too, but now it costs 15 cents per megabyte. Gizmodo

-- Sony's Crackle is working to get users to watch long-form content. It's pushing feature-length films on an audience that only sticks around for a few minutes. PaidContent

-- The U.S. needs a plan for responding to cyberattacks, according to scientists and advisers. NYT

-- A camera with a shutter speed of half a billionth of a second debuted. It can take 6 million images in a second. BBC

-- LAT auto columnist Dan Neil reviews the Tesla S. He's the first person outside the company to take it for a spin. LAT

-- "Palm is 'very far along' on a second Pre-like device and currently has plans to put it on the market later this year, possibly as early as the fall, according to TechCrunch.

-- A French blog appears to have hacked into the Twitter admin panel and posted supposed screen shots of its back-end system. Tech Whiz Underground

-- Time Warner will spin off AOL -- a (still) huge internet property with (still) declining ad revenue. LAT

-- As Facebook looks for more funding, various valuation discussions are as much as $3 billion apart. New York Post

-- Chris Lesinski

Reddit.tv, Reddit All reach out to casual social news readers

Social news website Reddit isn't the prettiest on the Net. It's Digg, Reddit's more popular competitor, that's nominated for a Webby award for best design. But Reddit's bare-bones interface has grown a loyal following among tech geeks and computer programmers.

Still, its home page, cluttered with blocks of text and buttons, can turn off new users and isn't conducive to multimedia content. Make way for Reddit.tv and Reddit All.

Reddit.tv, which launched today, aggregates all of the Web videos from Reddit.com into a clean, ad-free (at least for now) landing page that has an emphasis first and foremost on watching video. You can easily jump from clip to clip with the big "next video" button.

But the new product is clearly not geared toward Reddit's opinionated users, who are constantly ...

Around the Web 4.29.09: sinking AOL ad revenue, an investigation into Google, a high school unplugs

This class is pledging to go without texting, Facebook and other modern essentials. Credit: Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times.

— Google’s settlement with publishers over its Book Search leads to an antitrust inquiry, insiders say. NYT

— College admissions officers are looking at students’ social networking pages to make decisions about admission and financial aid. LAT

— A class in an L.A. high school tries to go a week totally unplugged. Can they handle it? LAT

— Nielson Online says that 60% of Twitter users quit after a month. Will Oprah be one of the quitters? Silicon Alley Insider

— An Egyptian blogger tries social activism over Facebook. Results are mixed. LAT

— Palm might premiere the Pre the day before Apple announces a new version of the iPhone. MobileCrunch

— AOL ad revenue drops 20%, and Time Warner says it plans to spin off the Internet company. Bloomberg via LAT

— But its content business — Media Glow — is expanding. Journalists, take note. Silicon Alley Insider

— IAC buys the company that makes the popular iPhone app UrbanSpoon. TechCrunch

— ESPN.com is taken over by pink dancing unicorns and glittery ponies. Just what men love. Deadspin

— Alana Semuels

L.A. Times Twitter interview with Virgin's Richard Branson

One of Virgin's Boeing 777-300ERs. Richard Branson is shown in February at a Seattle delivery ceremony. Credit: Ted S. Warren / Associated Press

Our friends over at the travel section of the L.A. Times have just started a live interview with Virgin Group Chief Executive Richard Branson. The "Twittologue" kicked off at 8:20 a.m., and you can follow the banter live on @latimestravel and @virginamerica.

Travel blogger Jen Leo will be talking to Branson about the expansion of his Virgin America airline to Orange County, the wonders of wireless Internet on flights and the even more wondrous ambition of flying through space thanks to Virgin Galactic.

Anyone can join in on the live discussion by appending the hashtag, #vx2oc, to the end of your messages on Twitter. You can then follow that discussion through Twitter search.

Branson will also be the subject of a social media interview next week on Digg Dialogg.

Head over to Twitter now to follow the Twittologue, or you can click the "read more" link at the bottom of this post to get a live feed of the questioning. (Refresh for updates.)

Justice Department looking into Google Book settlement

The U.S. Justice Department has started to make antitrust inquiries into Google's settlement with authors and publishers over the Internet giant's ambitious project to scan books and put them online.

Some authors and Google critics have complained that the deal, agreed upon last year and pending a judge's approval, would hurt competition by giving the company a stranglehold over the burgeoning market for online books.

The Justice Department has met with Google at least once in the last several weeks about the settlement, and more talks are scheduled for the near future, according to a person familiar with the matter, adding that Google has not been notified that a formal investigation has been launched.

Inquiries by law enforcement officials do not necessarily lead to formal investigations, nor even to a public objection by the agency.

The Justice Department also contacted Consumer Watchdog after the Santa Monica advocacy group sent it a letter expressing concerns about the deal.

"They talked to us with what I thought was great interest," said John Simpson, an advocate with Consumer Watchdog who participated in an hourlong discussion with Justice Department attorneys.

Google declined to comment, and a Justice Department spokesman was not immediately available.

In other developments in the case today, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin extended, from May 5 to Sept. 4, the deadline for authors to opt out of the Google Book settlement. Chin had been ...

Appiphilia: 5 apps to help you chill out [UPDATED]

Visitors at Burning Man 2008 in Black Rock City, Nev., participate in guided meditative chanting at center camp. Credit: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times

People are panicking about the spread of swine flu and sweating the fluctuations of the stock market and banking system. Cars are going more than they're coming -- and these days that's the brands, not just traffic. There's tension on the sidewalks for those of us compelled to type while walking -- and for those who might have to save us from stepping into traffic.

Yes, there's a lot to stress out about. But here's an idea: chill out.

Maybe you can't get to a group meditation session like the one above. Heck, that many people would stress me out. But the iPhone or BlackBerry you're tethered to may actually be able to help. Here's a look at five apps that get you moving in the right direction when it comes to relaxing.

iLava (99 cents)

What it is: That signature staple of the '60s and many college dorm rooms, on your iPhone.

What sizzles: You can listen to Jimi Hendrix and watch your iLava at the same time, man! If you're not listening to music on the iPhone or iPod Touch, you can hear the calming whoosh and glug of your virtual lava lamp. And for those of us who still need control, it lets you tilt, shake and pinch some action out of that lamp. It has an off switch, and there are seven color options to choose from. Touch the screen and find out you have power in iLava land.

What fizzles: The heart option with a rose as wallpaper is a bit gag-worthy and hokey.

Bottom line: It's very i-chill.

1976 swine flu PSAs attempt to scare citizens into getting shots

An enterprising conspiracy theorist on Monday posted a pair of U.S. government PSAs from 1976, urging citizens to quickly get a swine flu vaccine or risk becoming "very sick"-- although that pandemic never materialized.

The two sensational videos attempt to show that anyone and everyone can get the bug and pass it to children, teachers, postal workers, veterinarians and acquaintances. ("Betty's mother gave it to her best friend Dottie, but Dottie had a heart condition and she died.")

The spots were released by the U.S. Public Health Service, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services partially dedicated to minimizing the spread of infectious diseases. 

The agency, evidently, had a taste for scaremongering. As it turned out, its recommendation was unfounded. Not only did the 1976 swine flu scare result in only 200 cases and a single fatality, but the $135-million vaccination effort did more harm than good: The Centers for Disease Control halted the effort after several days after worrying that the vaccine was causing a rare neurological condition that resulted in the deaths of 25 people.

With that background in mind, these PSAs become shrouded in a grim irony.

-- David Sarno

Around the Web 4.28.09: L.A. gets CleanTech Corridor, Amazon gets Lexcycle and Twits get parodied

Antonio Villaraigosa wants to goose clean-tech jobs in L.A.. Credit: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times

-- Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa angles for a "CleanTech Corridor." LAT

-- Amazon buys Lexcycle, maker of the Stanza reader for iPhone. AppleInsider

-- Twits parodied by Ken Levine, host of "Dodger Talk." LAT

-- "Sleep talking PCs" sense network traffic but consume less energy. UCSD

-- Analyst lowers the odds of a Microsoft deal with Yahoo. CNet

-- AOL adds social network aggregator Socialthing to its 75 MediaGlow sites. ReadWriteWeb

-- Is there such a thing as "Google brain"? Joe Clark via Fawny

-- Blu-ray movie sales surge 400% as DVD sales slipped 14% in first quarter. paidContent

-- Plasma panel shipments plunged 22% as Pioneer and others stop making plasma TVs, says DisplaySearch. TWICE

-- Alex Pham

Time poll crowns 4chan founder moot 'most influential person'

4chan founder moot at last year's ROFLCon conference. Credit: Brennan Moore via Flickr

North Americans are worrying about swine flu. PC users are worrying about the Conficker virus. And companies promoting democratic Internet polls have to worry about 4chan.

Members of the underground message board appear to have successfully gamed Time's third annual World's Most Influential Person poll. Time has relented and officially crowned the founder of 4chan, who goes by the alias "moot," as the winner.

Time directly addresses the apparent orchestration by 4chan to influence the poll's results in its follow-up article. Moot "handily beat the likes of Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and Oprah Winfrey," Time writes. "To put the magnitude of the upset in perspective, it's worth noting that everyone moot beat out actually has a job."

The obvious jab at moot, whose real name is believed to be Christopher Poole, is understandable. Time reports that moot, whom the magazine profiled last summer, had no knowledge of an organized . . .